I'm loyal to AEGOD because I loved Birth of America and I'm waiting on their Civil War game. But this one looks impressive and interesting, too. I'm not against buying both.

Opinions?

Personally I would purchase both, as this is what I plan on doing. It looks to me that AEGOD ACW game is targeted at a more political and strategic game. And Forge of Freedom is more strategic and tactical.

well I am bais, but I would say to look over the AARs, and some of the other stuff there is posted and see if it looks like what you would be interested in

I got some AARs from during beta and I am more into the HW side of things, and JC and Gil have a PBEM game AAR they had running where they explain more what they were doing while they were playing

for me, I like the game and I like the system, and I like the people who did the work on it, it is not often that when you beta test, you really like the people around you

there is a lot more to this game then meets your eye when you just look at it

I think this game has a chance that 5-10 years down the road, people will be talking on the forums of the time and saying things like, Gee remember when they made games like FoF, I wish they would make them like that again

but, time will tell

look around, ask questions, if it is in your interest, it will be a good game, if not, you could buy it and give it to someone you don't really like :)

Ask again after the next patch. I had to quit playing FOF because the strategic AI, IMHO is inadequate, although the tactical AI was fairly decent. I to am waiting for AGEOD it looks like they are benifitting from many of the comments made on this board and incorporating them into their game.

Ericbabe and Co. are good at trying to improve their games and I will try to play FOF again after patch is released since they have said AI improvements have been made. I am not a great fan of PBEM so I must find the AI somewhat challenging for me to stay with a game.

I played BOA also and found the AI pretty respectable. If you like BOA then you should check out Hussar's For Liberty, it is pretty fun also.

Ask again after the next patch. I had to quit playing FOF because the strategic AI, IMHO is inadequate, although the tactical AI was fairly decent. I to am waiting for AGEOD it looks like they are benifitting from many of the comments made on this board and incorporating them into their game.

In testing I've been finding the strategic AI more challenging. I played a game as the CSA into late 1862 and had to fend off close to ten amphibious invasions of the East Coast. Plus the Union kept up the pressure on me both in Virginia and Tennessee. Sadly, I had to stop the game when the newer version of the beta patch made my save files obsolete.

I'm curious: what aspects of the strategic AI would you like to see changed?

I'm curious: what aspects of the strategic AI would you like to see changed?

Re Strategic AI: Some biggies IMO that need to be addressed from the Union AI perspective though are probably applicable to the CSA AI as well. 1: Know when to cut it's losses after losing a big battle or two, instead of repeatedly sending ever dwindling Armies to the same province to get pointlessly slaughtered. 2: Be a lot more situationally aware of the dangers of having it's Armies encircled and cut-off, ie should be trying to preserve a line of communication/supply - instead of sending everything 'south' it should be keeping reserve Corps/Armies in adjacent provinces to prevent isolation of its main Armies. 3. I have yet to see the Union AI put its Seige guns into Armies conducting seiges - they just usually sit in Washington or thereabouts. The Union AI does a good job of upgrading its weapons but again have yet to see it concertedly raise Divisions that have a higher morale.

Re Tactical AI: When attacking the AI really needs to stop sending in units piecemeal and use it's forces in a combined and concerted effort. On defense having the AI entrenched and stay in place has been a great improvement; however the downside is it will *always* stay in place(ignoring VLs) even though me as the attacker am only concentrating on one part of its line. At some point, ie when its line has been breached or before, it should begin concentrating its unengaged troops to the areas of contact instead of just sitting there.

I wait impatiently for the patch. Will it adress the "lone brigades" trying to join armies through enemy lines ? This is, IMO, the biggest issue actually.

to the dev and beta team.

I last night played into June 1862 and think I fought lone brigades just twice, and both times it happened when I was moving my guys and ran into a lone brigade. (E.g., the USA and CSA both got Indian brigades in April, and while moving mine around it ran into the USA's unit somewhere in Arkansas. But there's nothing wrong with that happening: obviously, if you run into a lone brigade you should fight it. But I did not experience the problem you described. And trust me, I'm looking for it...) (There certainly were no instances of the same brigade fighting round after round after round.)

I last night played into June 1862 and think I fought lone brigades just twice, and both times it happened when I was moving my guys and ran into a lone brigade. (E.g., the USA and CSA both got Indian brigades in April, and while moving mine around it ran into the USA's unit somewhere in Arkansas. But there's nothing wrong with that happening: obviously, if you run into a lone brigade you should fight it. But I did not experience the problem you described. And trust me, I'm looking for it...) (There certainly were no instances of the same brigade fighting round after round after round.)

< Message edited by Gil R. -- 2/9/2007 12:23:54 PM >

There was a lone Union Bde. in one game that fought about 4 - 6 battles against the whole ANV and a detached Corps, but I used Quick battle so this lone Union Bde. always skedaadled.

Great!!!! It wasn't all that annoying, but mainly time consuming and thus somewhat annoying to have continual 1 Bde. attacks. However, realistically, these 1 Bde. attacks were viewed by me as being recon-in-force, raids, suplly gathering actions, etc., and these small operations were indeed conducted on a daily basis throughout the war, and throughout any war in history.

An occasional 1 or 2 Bde. foray into enemy territory would be quite OK and realistic.

Chris

PS: Gil, I am glad you are OK and were not driving your vehiKle wnen it got clobbered. I have never been clobbered before as I was last week by a nut, no doubt an imbibed nut playing at being Mr. Petty NASCAR, at 70 to 90mph. Lucky I did not rollover and am still here without injuries, although I am sure some 'people' would be glad of my demise.

Pretty amazing you were unscathed. How's the other guy and his car? (In my case, my parked car was hit by a Honda minivan that kept going another 100+ feet, and the people were completely fine. Those are strong vehicles...)

Pretty amazing you were unscathed. How's the other guy and his car? (In my case, my parked car was hit by a Honda minivan that kept going another 100+ feet, and the people were completely fine. Those are strong vehicles...) Gil

The fellow that hit me kept on going, it was a hit-and-run at 70-90mph. I was very lucky in only getting nailed in the left rear and not rolling over. It is amazing the other fellow that hit me didn't lose control and bounce off me and careen into the concrete freeway divider. The people that were behind me and almost got hit by the same fellow, were amazed I didn't roll over and was uninjured, so were the State Police.

I have had an Honest John missile unexpectedly fly through the air about 75-feet from me, been shot at, attacked by various humans sometimes with weapons of various sorts, and animals including a large wild boar, etc. etc. etc., and this recent vehiKular mishap rates up there with the worst of them. It was completely unexpected, and I didn't know what hit me and luckily and quickly recovered my wits to prevent my sliding and careening vehiKle from hitting other vehiKles and from rolling over. Whew!!!!!

This explains it all. from a 2-5-07 (5-2-07 for you Europeans reading this) post at another thread here entitled 'I GOT MY CD GAME COPY!!!!!':

'Unfortunately, I just briefly have looked at it and have not loaded the game due to various reasons, some good and some bad.

I am building a new computer and updating hardrives with Win XP, F-disking and formatting. My old computer has FAT32 formattted disks, and my new computer will have NTFS formatted disks. Am trying to get a WD Raptor as the master dirve for the new computer, and have a 160GB WD SATA II *MB cache for the Slave Drive already. Old Computer will have 2 IDE, 1 WD at 80GB and another WD, IBM/Hitachi, WD or whatever at 40GB or so, what ever I pickup on Ebay cheapest. Still waiting for the 2.5GHz Northwoos 400FSB 512kb for the old computer, and the BTX fan for the new computer with its P4 571 3.8GHz 800FSB 1MB cache Hyper Threading CPU that I already have. Need DDR2 of 400, 533 or 667MHz for the new computer, 4 GB's worth, maybe only 3. Waiting to get 1GB PC 2100 266MHz Ram Dimm back under RMA from a manufacturer for the old computer which now has 2.256GB of 266MHz RAM and will have 3GN when and if I get a RMA replacement DIMM. Blah, blah, blah.

Also, early this morning at about 2:30AM, I was hit from the rear on the expressway by a nut doing between at least 70mph to maybe 90mph plus. It was a hit and run, and my truck almost flipped over but I did some quick wheeling of the steering wheel as I slid across the lanes in front of fast moving oncoming traffic, and recovered and didn't flip over sideways. Unbelieveable the only damage was to my left rear of my truck and tailgate, the left rear quarter panel needs replacement, maybe the tailgate does maybe not, and I lost my left rear tire and the rim is ruined, the rear bumper is shot, and botu tail light assemblies need to be replaced, as the right one flew out due to the impact. Lucky the people behind me stopped and called the State Police and an ambulance, but I seemed to be only rattled because the person that hit me almost hit the people behind me but swerved around them and clobbered me. If I had been going 5mph faster I probably would have just missed getting hit as I was changing lanes, only one lane, to my right to get into the exit lane to get off the freeway. Only 2.5 to 3 miles or so to go and I would have been home. It was very windy and frigid, so I sat in the State Police car and talked and joked around with the 2 Officers. I related some tales from my drinking and driving days, and yes, got some good laughs. I haven't drank sine 1995. We determined the hit and run fellow that nailed me was probably drunk, and luckily I was going fast enough so when he hit me he pushed be and bounced off, but kept going like a bat out of hell. The people behind me said the rear of my truck was lifted in the air due to this guys angled front end of his SUV pushing up under my rather high rear end of my truck. I was lucky my truck didn't flip over because i may not be here now, or be here in a injured manner anyway. I had about 1/2 of a cup of coffee in the cup holder, and about 1/2 of it spilled out, so at least I still had some cold coffee to sip on after the accident. What a trip. I didn't know what hit me. I was unlucky in getting hit, but am lucky to be alive and uninjured and having as little damage done to my truck as was done.

I will have to use a rental vehiKle for a week or two until my truck is repaired. Insurance will cover it, with a $250 or $500 deductible though.

I think a proper Ben Franklin Phhhrrrrrttt!!!!!!!!!!!!! is in order here for this vehiKular event.